Today I’m pleased to be taking part in the blog tour for Summer At My Sister’s. My review is written with thanks to Rachel Gilbey at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me on the tour and for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

Twin sisters. One scorching summer. A bucketful of secrets.

Diana’s life is perfect. Her twin sister, Josie’s – not so much. But when secrets are revealed this summer, everything will change.

Diana has a rich and successful husband, two talented youngsters and an adorable dog. She always looks as if she’s stepped from the cover of a magazine. Her immaculate second home by the sea, for idyllic summers with her perfect family, was actually featured in one.

Josie has a messy, compact flat, dates, but not relationships, and she can’t even keep a houseplant alive. She moves from job to job, goes clubbing with her friends and often looks as if she’s fallen through a hedge.

Although Josie loves Diana deeply, each year she declines the invitation to spend the summer with her sister. Or any other family holiday. Because Josie has a secret.

But is Diana’s life so perfect? Or is she also hiding something? When secrets are revealed this summer, everything will change. Josie could finally have the life she’s always wanted … if she’s brave enough to take a chance.

This is the first book in my new series of standalone books set in Seahorse Harbour.

Review:

I’m a huge fan of Emily Harvale’s Merriment Bay and Wyntersleap series, so I was intrigued to see how she would begin the next series she has up her sleeve. ‍Summer At My Sister’s is a little longer than the other books so there is more time for the reader to get to know the characters and this novel is a little darker, with both Diana and Josie hiding something. However, to compare what we know of the Seahorse Bay series with the other series doesn’t really do Summer At My Sister’s justice as it is a fabulous novel.

There is an interactive map on the first page of Summer At My Sister’s, which gives the reader a visual representation of the bay in which the novel is set. However, whilst this is an interesting addition, I felt that Harvale’s descriptions were more than enough to allow me to picture exactly where the characters lived their lives and transport me to this wonderfully imagined location. There is also lots of information about the history about the area, which creates a well developed background for the setting.

Summer At My Sister’s is narrated by Josie. As the less settled of the two sisters, Josie was the one I related to most and I enjoyed learning more about her life. Her tendency to make a joke in a serious situation is a personality trait I share, and I found her humour to be very uplifting. She is surrounded in Seahorse Bay by some equally vibrant characters (I hope I am as energetic as Aunt Elsie in my sixties!) whose sense of community and relationships with each other make the Bay a wonderful place to spend some time.

The characters in Summer At My Sister’s have secrets from each other, and this adds an extra layer of intrigue to a jam packed plot. I was keen to get to the bottom of what everyone was hiding and this kept me hooked from beginning to end.

Summer At My Sister’s is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: